Is there any environmental difference between showering at home vs at the gym?

How does your gym or how do you heat your water? What kind of showerhead/flow rate does either have? Probably most importantly, does the gym launder the towel after just one use? Do you?

Icarus

 

What Icarus said. There is a chance that a gym would use some sort of low flow showerhead to keep their operating costs down. That is true of many institutional facilities and hotels.

 

Heat is heat, the gym probably has a bit of an edge in water heating all technologies being equal. I suspect the biggest issue is that people (like yourself) are more likely to "splurge" when it is on someone else's dime.

Icarus

 

Oh yeah, to save $0.03, I really do not want to shower with a bunch of sweaty guys......

Now if it's co-ed.......

 

Which location is most conducive to sharing the shower with another person?

Preferably one you find good company while naked.

 

I save a BOAT LOAD! I jump in the electric boat (recharged by PV panels) down to the other end of the lake where the clubhouse pools/showers are located. Jacuzzi / swim & shower on their dime. The jacuzzi seats 25, and is heated regardless whether any one is in it or not. So by being in it, the gas / electricity is at least being used by (me) someone. The outdoor showers (grey watter) runoff runs into the lake, rather than the sewer, whereas if I jacuzzi at home / shower at home, our runoff would go into the sewer. So the association has to use 500 millionth less to keep the lake level. Hey ... I'm a giver ~

 

Which location has the best acoustics for singing in the shower?

 

Inquire about how hot water is delivered:
1. Hot water on demand or constantly heated standing tank.
2. Insulated pipes and tank vs. noninsulated.
3. Low flow vs. high flow or multiple shower heads.
4. Timer vs. open pipe.
5. Solar vs. natural gas, propane or electric heating.

Make a choice that is the most cost effective for you and the gym. Suggest an energy audit for the gym (conservation & efficiency are the most cost effective). Think and act "least cost, end use" (long term), for hot water, towels, transportation, etc. As we continue to enter Peak Everything, we will continuously examine energy costs.

 

Either you have a very stout constitution, or your cold water is not very cold.

For some of us, a cold shower would create a medical emergency. Somewhere I saw chart for typical minutes to loss of consciousness vs. water temperature. That data is hard to find, probably over ethics concerns about how the data was obtained.

 

i would have to guess the gym has a tankless water heater :thumb:

 

My water gets a bit above 50 F in the summer. Not sure what the real average ground temperature is, or whether the water pipeline flow is sufficient to prevent it from fully warming in its travel from the nearby mountain watershed.

 

My water pumps out from under the frozen lake! Water temps are around 34f all winter! Demand water heater works great.

Icarus

PS. Demand water heater may or may not make sense for something as big as a Gym. A hybrid system connected to a heating boiler, or A/C condenser MIGHT be more efficient.

 

The reverse would be true. Larger volumes = smaller area/volume ratio and therefore fewer losses for the same volumetric usage ratio. The gym likely has a higher daily turnover ratio (use/storage) than most residences so the percentage of storage losses should be even lower.

And if I had a gym I would definitely try to use drainwater heat recovery.

Well, there is your key difference, you take cold showers at home, but not at the gym. I suppose you could take cold showers at the gym but then there might be shrinkage issues.

BIG EDIT:
I should have carried the first paragraph further. What really matters in considering incremental changes in hot water use is the burner efficiency (AFUE), NOT any storage efficiency losses. Why? Because those losses will happen whether or not you use an extra 10 gallons, but the efficiency to heat your shower water will be closer to 75-80% for a non-condensing burner/heat exchange system, or in the 90's for condensing types. So tank or tankless is not really the relevant issue.

 

I have been known to jump through a hole in the ice into the lake out of a hot tub! Not a recommended activity!

Icarus

 

If you are worried about that difference then you should certainly be using 100% renewable electricity, either generating it yourself or by contract with your electric utility.

 

Shouldn't use electricity to heat water UNLESS all of the following are true. First, the electricity is from hydro or solar or some zero emission source AND the electricity from that source is truly surplus. For example, if you are using PV to generate the electricity to heat your water that's better than fossil fuel, but if you can pass that energy to the grid for other purposes and use solar hot water or demand nat. gas to heat the water that would be way better than using resistance electricity to heat water.

The reality in this world is to not only use less energy, but to use that energy wisely. I don't remember the formula but something in my memory is that it takes ~10 btus of energy (generated) to create 1 btu of resistance electric heat.

Icarus